Newly released Blu-ray player Sony BDP-S350 review sent in by Tim Hsu from Cambridge.

November 3, 2008

I purchased this player with the1.3 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load Twister - almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc predominantly using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. Few days ago I flash updated the firmware to 2.60 in about 11 minutes. See manufacturer's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.
I purchased a 46" HDTV and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player along with this Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units. I've not had many complaints of load times. The average is about 30 seconds for most films. I have had a few that take several minutes but I don't sweat it much. It just gives some extra time to get something to drink and run to the bathroom before starting! There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible. Manufacture's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems unpolished at best. One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet this player is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet.

This player's plastic remote is reasonably good. It's well designed and compliments HDTV - the remote controls the TV's basic functions too. Many movies have tons of extra content not found on regular dvd's. Watching at 1080p is fantastic and any movie lover will be more than happy with this player. There is high fan noise during dvd playback, which was only noticeable with the tv turned off. While the movie is playing, I couldn't hear the fan at all. The display on the front is a gray-blue. There are 4 brightness settings (High-Med-Low-Off), which can be accessed with one button on the top bottom of the remote. Very convenient. With the display turned off, this is a very nice viewing experience. There is also an additional display button on the remote, which tells you the TRT of the disc, which chapter you are watching, time remaining in the chapter, and bit rate.

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